Wrath
by Crazyhumor
Summary: A series of natural disasters crumbles the world. This is a story of survival, change, and growth.
1. Trapped

This is going to be long and filled with ups and downs.

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It's dark and hot – very hot. The air is thick and hard to breath – it burns, and he coughs. He moves his head from the ground, he thinks. He then swoons and he tastes blood. He can't remember why it's so dark and why his foot is in so much pain. His mind was captured by a slowly vanishing haze and he can't make any sense out of anything.

He tries to move but can't make any sense of what's up and what's down. He wishes he could see.

Then it comes to him.

It had all began with a game of hide and seek Rex. It wasn't a game to him, but a few ganky freshmen had gotten their grubby little hands on his puppet and thought it would be funny. If most of those freshmen weren't bigger than him and he believed in violence he would have beat them up.

Worse of all was it was after a performance when he noticed he was missing until after everyone was leaving, and no one was kind enough to help him search for his missing puppet. Great friends…

He had wondered the blackened halls of Hollywood Arts for half an hour, singing softly to keep the Hollywood Arts ghosts Jade had told him about at bay. He walked by the off limits basement and hoped his puppet wasn't in there. He came back to the room which led to the basement and stared long and hard at the 'off limits' sign.

After swallowing his fear, and calling himself a pansy in Rex's voice, he reached for the closed door. It creaked open and he flashed his pear phone into the blackened hole of a basement. He could see another light, a soft orange near the bottom.

"Rex, are you down there?"

He received no answer but he began down the creaky stairwell, the old wood hisses under his weight. Once he's at the bottom he looks towards his left and gasps.

Jade is standing near a mountain of boxes, shoots him a flitting glance. Her attention moves back to the box before her and she continues to shift through the items, ignoring him.

"What are you doing here?" He asks and glances around nervously. Being alone with Jade in a dark place was a nightmare he had once.

"I like to be in dark places." She answers and he's not really sure if she's being sarcastic.

"Oh," he felt was his best response. "Have you seen Rex?"

An animalistic growl escaped her and he quickly prepared himself to bolt back upstairs. She threw the box down she was looking through and tore open another one. He realized that maybe the growl wasn't meant for him.

"They left him over there." Her hand waved dismissively behind her. "Can you leave now?"

Robbie looked to his left and sighed in relief finding his best friend unharmed propped against a few old paintings. He moved towards Rex just as the ground began to shake violently.

"It's an Earthquake!"

He begins backing up and looking for cover. Then all was black.

-wr-

Some of his bearings returned to him, he felt around in his pocket finding his pear phone. Relief flooded him when his phone worked – it had a long crack down the middle of it. He had insurance for that.

The light was limited but in the total blackness was like a spot light. He was surrounded, by unhinged pipes and pieces of building. Looking at his pained foot he found it was his right foot and his shoe was missing. He couldn't move his toes.

Tears welled up in his eyes and he coughed again, and searched around for his glasses with the light not finding them, but he found something else.

A few feet away he caught a glimpse of a pale, blood and dirt covered face. His heart fell into his stomach. "Jade," he croaked. He looked back down at his phone intent on calling someone to help them but he had no signal, not even a bar. He also took note that his battery life was about at half way.

After shaking his nerves he maneuvered himself carefully for the objects above him wouldn't fall, he crawled towards Jade using he cell as guiding light. Once over her he then positioned a finger under her nose. He only removed it when he was sure the girl was breathing.

He began to lightly slap her cheek softly, hesitantly. He couldn't believe he was slapping Jade West. "Wake up…" He begged. Blood was pooling around her head, and he was sure he needed to wake her up. He had heard if someone has a concussion they shouldn't fall asleep. "I don't think you're really supposed to sleep." He whispered and wished he had some water.

Her brows scrunched up first and her head tilted to the left a little. Then a fit of coughs had her whole body tensing and turning to her side. "Are you alright?" He asked as his phoned blinked off enveloping them in darkness.

He fumbled a little to get his light back on. He flashed it in her face and she hissed at him like a vampire and squinted.

"What in the he– why are you shinning that in my face?" She was clutching her head and glaring at him weakly. She lost interest in him fairly quickly as she rose to a sitting position. Her eyes roamed around taking in all the fallen debris with odd calm eyes.

"I… I think it was an earthquake." Robbie flashed his phone around. "I think we're trapped."

"No crap…"She winced bringing her hand back to look at her blood covered hand. "I don't think that's good." She mumbled to herself.

"I don't have a signal." He told her even though she hadn't asked. He focused his phone on a pipe above them which was dripping water onto his shoulder. "We're going to have wait until someone comes looking for us."

She isn't really paying attention he can tell. She is clutching her head which gushes blood. Robbie quickly pulls off his over shirt which is a sweater leaving him in a white T-shirt and motions for her to press it to her head. Without question she actually does it and leans on a slab of ceiling behind her, she's growing paler.

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	2. Aftershock

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Three hours later Jade's still alive and no help has come. Robbie asks her questions ever minute to keep her awake, not even caring that it's annoying her and will probably earn him piece of Hollywood Arts to the face.

"What's your favorite movie?" He asks. It's completely dark because he turned his phone off to save battery power.

It takes her a while to answer and he had begun to worry. "You've already asked that one." Her voice for some reason sounds really far away even though in actuality they're really close – every now and then their legs would bump into one another.

She had told him it was meaty lasagna. "Oh uh, well… what's your favorite animal?"

She coughs, which makes him wanna cough too. The air is too thick. "If you want me to stay awake, I suggest you come up with better conversation."

Robbie bits his lip and winces when he touches his busted lip. He had never been the best conversationalist, and he had always found Jade hard to talk to… "I think my toes are broken." He tells her thinking of the throbbing pain shooting up his foot and leg.

"I think my head is cracked." She replies dryly.

He's happy he can't make out her face. He can feel her glare though. "How about I tell you a story?"

She is quiet for another long period of time. "If you must…"

He grins and it's lost in the gloom. "Alright… let's see… there was this seven year old boy who really wanted to eat ice cream and cake for his seventh birthday…"

"Alright I'm bored already." Jade interrupted. "Go back to your stupid question asking."

Several more hours go by. Maybe its days…

Robbie isn't really sure but he had fallen asleep hours ago and he was certain Jade had too. She had sprung awake when he had started yelling for her to wake up – she's alive and not in a coma. He receives an ear full for scaring her.

Robbie moves his achy body and fumble towards the water dripping from the ceiling pipe. He no longer cared if he could die from drinking it. It hadn't given Jade a stomach virus yet and she had long since took into temptation and drunk the water. The boy swallowed each drip like it was a gulp making loud odd noises.

"Can you not get on my nerves for two minutes?" Jade questions angrily.

Robbie lightly sighs as his stomach grumbles loudly. "Why haven't we been rescued yet?"

His question is not answered.

Several hours later nothing has changed. Robbie reboots his phone and the light actually stings his eyes. His phone says its midnight and the first of the month, which means they've been trapped for almost three days. There is still no signal.

"It's been three, uh days." He announces out loud and Jade makes a sound. A grunt… he thinks. "We have to get out of here."

She huffs this time.

"Maybe we can dig our way out?" He asks himself flashing his light all around them. He tries to find an opening – a clue to which way would be out. He begins tugging at odd objects with one hand while holding his light with the other.

"We're going to be crushed…" Jade lightly mumbles.

A few minutes in she begins to help him clear out all the objects. They work carefully to ensure they don't cause an avalanche. It's humid and muggy, and the air's hard to breath so their breathing through their noses and panting. Other than their breathing, and the rhythmic drip of from the broken pipe, all is silent.

An hour later they haven't made much process. They're too sweaty and too close to one another bumping against one another sore and stiff bodies – Robbie's battery turns red and buzzes while flashing 30% remaining. Jade curses under her breath through tight lips.

By hour two, they had made a dent – a tunnel. Robbie's butt is in Jade's face because the whole they've made is too narrow. Neither one of them so much as breaths in fear of a cave in, they're in pitch darkness again to save battery life.

Robbie winces and moves his butt hitting Jade's face when he cuts his hand on something. It's deep and painful, and in the blackness he uses a piece of his T-shirt as a bandage. He moans about getting it infected – Jade threatens death if he farts in her face.

Someplace between hours three and four a 'clearing' of sorts is felt. At first Robbie isn't very sure of how large the clearing is because of the blackness surrounding them but when he fires up his phone he actually smiles.

They've made it to a tiny space almost completely bare of any fallen debris and near the basement's stairwell. Above them though makes his smile fade. Long rusted pipes hang from the ceiling and the cement floor is covered by a few inches of water.

He focuses his light on the old stairwell, ignoring Jade's impatient heavy shoves to his back side. It's barely standing and has giant holes between steps. A support beam has fallen half way – it looks as if it can be climbed over, maybe under.

Finally when something sharp is shoved into his back he moves further out, allowing Jade to join him. They don't really talk fearing an avalanche, but looks are given.

The ground trembles. The world growls like a hungry beast. Behind them a few things fall and the hole they had created fills up and a few things tumble towards them – nothing dangerous.

"Aftershock…" Jade mumbles to herself.

They turn their attention to the basement's stairwell; Robbie's light their only guide. Getting to their feet is surprisingly hard for both of them. Their legs feel unstable and wobbly and hunger claws angrily at their insides.

Maneuvering up unstable, unreliable broken stairs is difficult, especially for Robbie his impaired foot. Moving over the large gaps and stepping over stairs proves difficult. When they finally make it to the fallen beam, the gap is large for they both can shuffle underneath and come out on the other side.

They finally made it to the basement's door. Robbie's phone blinks off for the last time. Robbie finds the handle and the basement's door easily pushes forward.

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	3. Out of Hollywood Arts

This is a bad chapter like really, I just couldn't get it right I'm happy I'm finished with this chapter.

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They have to shield their eyes it's so bright. Hollywood Arts isn't recognizable.

First thing they notice is the large hole in the broken ceiling, which is revealing a cloudy sky. Next they take in the fallen debris, which the floor is covered in. The lockers that had once been attached to the wall now litter the floor. A vending machine across from them had been crushed by a piece of fallen ceiling and it looked bent and skewed, but a few bags of chips and other snacks had exploded from it and now littered the floor.

Jade had moved by Robbie, climbing and stepping over pieces of Hollywood Arts. She grabbed the first bag of chips she ran across, which was an already open bag of _Cheese Tuffs._ She began stuffing her face.

Robbie was slower at moving his mind slowly realizing that he was alive and hungry.

-wr-

The hallway to their left is completely caved in while to their right was travelable, though it was littered with pieces of ceiling and the floor was bulging. The whole building could collapse at any time.

Daunting as the realization was neither teen was in a rush to move and instead rested their bones and filled their bellies with unhealthy stale vending machine food.

In the fading light Robbie took off his sneaker and sock, examined his black and blue toes. He tried to moved them but found it impossible. He glanced towards Jade who was climbing and scrambling over the fallen debris gathering the food from the vending machine into a black bag she had found. She held up what looked like a mushed honey bun and made a face before throwing it into the bag.

She's covered in small cuts and her hair is sticking to her with dried blood, and her torn clothes are covered in dust. They both looked like they had lived through well… an earthquake.

A siren blaring far off caught both of their attentions fairly quickly even though it was faint. They both got on their feet and began screaming for 'help'. Soon the far away sound faded completely taking their hope with it.

"Why aren't we being rescued?" Jade huffed taking a seat back on the hard debris covered floor.

Robbie began putting his sock and shoe back on. He realized then he had left Rex in the basement. He wasn't going to go back in and look for him, and it made him feel sick, like he was leaving an actual person behind.

"I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when we can actually see again." Jade announced and curled up on the floor, her head resting on her bag of food.

Robbie frowned at her back which was facing him before looking back up towards the quickly darkening sky. It was getting dark very early, he noted. Finally he found himself a semi-comfortable area on the ground and curled into his own ball.

"Hollywood Arts gets an 'F' for safety." He mumbled lightly when the last light had melted away. He wasn't really sure if she had heard him. It wouldn't matter, he realized it was a bad joke anyway.

-wr-

They move at a snail's pace through the blackened hall. They can barely see each other let alone anything else. This results in a lot of tripping, wincing, and new wounds.

Robbie's in the lead and he's doing a lot of 'cursing'.

"Oh man…!" he whines when he hits what appears to be a cave in. "I don't think we can go any further."

Jade moves by him and feels the wall herself. "We had to go by a class room and we're on the first floor."

Robbie agrees and they spilt up and begin looking for a door that will open. Jade finds one and light quickly fills the black hallway when the room's door is opened.

It's the trigonometry class room, and there a window on the other side of the room.

Jade heads in first moving aside toppled over desks and chairs and ignoring Robbie's frantic calls from the hallway.

She can't really see much from the window, besides that the wall that had separated the building from the gym had fallen over. The window was still intact.

Annoyed, the girl waited on Robbie to catch up with her. "I think we can get out this way." The girl stated the obvious.

She then pushed the window open and climbs out and Robbie follows. They head right and towards the road and all is very quiet.

"This is really weird." Robbie comments just as Jade's foot gets stuck between two rocks. He bumps into her.

"Help me out."

Robbie begins tugging at her careful to not hurt her and a minute later they both get free and roughly.

"Thanks." Jade mumbles sarcastically.

They continue towards the open area. The ground shakes only a little and very briefly.

"It's an aftershock, I think." Robbie yells.

"Yeah"

They continue on towards the opening and finally make it into the opening and out into the road which is completely empty.

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	4. Going Forward

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Outside, the wind is blowing and the world is covered in sand and dirt. The buildings that had surrounded Hollywood Arts are now piles of rubble, and the ones still standing are leaning and in shambles.

Down the middle of what was once the road is a spilt – long, jagged, and deep. When the teens approach it cautiously, they notice it goes down for miles. Sewer pipes jut out of the torn earth.

"Did the world end?" Jade's serious question unnerves Robbie.

They are quite a while as they take in the ruined landscape they've found themselves in. Realization of their situation slowly dawning on them, the earthquake hadn't only affected Hollywood Arts. The air is hard to breathe, like on the inside, but it also burns – a lot.

A chemical smell is in the air, and it isn't very healthy smelling. They both cover their noses with a hand and coughs briefly. More of Robbie's T-shirt is ripped and made into homemade masks for both of them.

"I think I'm going to head home." Jade mumbles through the mask dully. She looks out of it to Robbie – she looks how he feels. She turns her back to him and begin heading in a direction, she avoids getting too close to the hole.

It takes a while for Robbie to come to his senses and limp after her, fortunately she was walking at a snail's pace. He was out of breath by the time he got to her. He looked towards the cloudy sky briefly before talking.

"Maybe… we… should go together?" He caught his breath and squinted at her – his lack of glasses and light underprivileged eyes weakened his seeing ability. "It could be really dangerous…"

Jade's eyes remained ahead of her, and she gently shrugged. They hadn't really seen anyone which worried them for many reasons.

It was impossible to tell if they were heading in the right way, well to Robbie anyway. Nothing was recognizable anymore. His chest felt tight with the feeling of dread as they made their way over the broken streets.

It's so quiet.

Finally the tare in the earth ends and they come to what maybe was once a neighborhood. Robbie isn't really sure when they get to what was once her, but they turn around half-way down the more residential road. The whole neighborhood is nothing but rubble.

He watches Jade; her face is unreadable as they get back on a main road. He wonders what they are going to do now.

"We can go to your house now." She tells him suddenly ten minutes down the road.

He nods, but realizes he has no idea which direction his house is in. They take a break while he thinks, and they both wish for water.

They find his house and it's still standing, but leaning and the windows are all broken out and his door wide open - looks broken open. No one is home, of course. It's getting dark so they take refuge in his desolate home and set up camp, Jade on the couch and Robbie on the recliner. First though, they go through his cabinets for food. They find a can of sardines and three big jars of apple banana sauce. Everything else had been cleared out which gave Robbie hope that his parents were alright and had left.

The tap water doesn't work much to their dismay. Robbie remembers he had a half drunken bottle of water on his nightstand in his room and attempts to get it but his bedroom door won't open. He retrieves his family photos from their fallen places all over the floor and removes them from their broken frames and carefully folds them and puts them into a backpack he's found. He can't locate his family photo album under the tipped over coffee table – another sign he takes as a good one.

They sleep for a very long time, even when the cloudy sky lightens and shines through the broken windows. Robbie wakes up first, he feels lighter and happier and he realizes it was his first good rest in days. Then reality smacks him in the face as he looks around his destroyed home.

He takes a walk outside, leaving Jade to sleep on the couch and mumble in her fitful sleep. He had contemplated waking her up because of how distressed she looked but finally decided any rest was better than no rest.

He guessed the neighborhood he lived in was better built then Hollywood Arts because mostly all the houses were up and standing, though they all looked abandoned.

"Mr. Ritters!" Robbie called out as he approached a duplex across the road. Mr. Ritters was an old man who Robbie had spent countless afternoons with. He had always felt bad for the old man, who relied on oxygen tanks and had a reputation of being lonely and mean.

His door was still closed and locked, so Robbie had to use an emergency key which was still inside the broken hole on the third step. He called out again before unlocking and entering the home. It was much like his, things toppled over and broken.

He froze in the foyer at hearing a voice. "Mr. Ritters…" He called again not wanting to be attacked _again _for entering the man's home without any sort of permission.

The voice was coming from far end of the two room duplex. The voice continued talking without hesitation, and Robbie realized it was maybe a radio. Stepping over the fallen things he makes his way to the back room and pushes the room's door open.

He instantly haunches over and empties the contents of his stomach, which isn't much. Through his mask the odor of a decaying Mr. Ritters burns his nostrils and he heaves dryly. He leans on the room's doorframe for support and tries to take his eyes off the first being he had seen in days besides Jade.

The body of Mr. Ritters is covered in flies and his skin dark and swollen. It's so disturbing – but he can't look away. The old man's oxygen tank is a few feet from his tipped over wheelchair. He looks like he was reaching for it.

"_I repeat… any residents still inside California… evacuate immediately."_

Robbie heavily swallowed as his eyes moved from the man to the bulky radio, lying on the carpeted floor. It took his mind a while to catch up with was being said.

"_The last earthquake experienced has been estimated as a 4.0 on the Richter Scale, a baby compared to the 9.7 experienced last week. I repeat any survivors in any part of Southern and Northern California evacuate. It is estimated and earthquake ranging from a 10.0 will hit and decimate what is left of the entire region. This is my last broadcast. Also, if you make it out avoid all middle United States, which is being ravaged my over two-hundred tornados… That is all." _The voice cut out. Robbie hadn't realized but he had crawled over to the radio and was holding it in his lap. After the broadcast he likely stared at the radio for an hour before getting up, avoiding Mr. Ritter's body he unstably left.

He was almost out of the house when it began shaking. The force threw him off his feet and making his fall to the floor. He covered his head and curled into a ball in the middle of the hallway.

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	5. Storms

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"_God… wake… you dumbass…"_

The world was tilting and hazy, and his thoughts her messy, unorganized and all over. Was he alive? Did he wanna be alive? Why did his head hurt? Why did his face? Who's hitting him? Is that water?

_Water…_

He groaned._ We need water… why is it being wasted?_

"_Head… sleeping…not fair… leave me alone…"_

Someplace in his hazy mind he realized it was Jade who was talking to him, no, screaming at him. With that realization he realized she was slapping him and sprinkling water in his face. He also realized his head hurt bad.

"Let you die!" Her voice became clearer and closer, she was angry. "Why in the hell are you talking like that?"

He blinked his eyes open slowly looking up towards Jade who was leaning over him._ Talking like what?_ "Can you not hit me?" He croaked and coughed when he breathed in the chemical air. Jade roughly pressed his T-shirt mask to his face.

"I woke up and you were gone." Her eyes blazed with outrage as she leaned back. "Then another earthquake hit and I found you in that house and had to drag your boney ass out. You weigh a lot more then you look like you would." To prove it, the girl rolled her shoulder and patted it with a fist.

He looked around taking in they were in the middle of the road. He remembered the radio broadcast. "We need to get out of here." He quickly explained why.

"That's why it's like a ghost town around here then." The girl stated more then asked. Robbie nodded anyway and struggled to get on his feet.

They decided needed a vehicle, only ever car they came across was unusable because of gas and other issues. Also the roads were far too uneven and rubble clustered. They settled on a pair of undamaged bicycles lying forgotten out in front of one of Robbie's neighbor's houses.

A short-crash course of teaching Jade how to ride a bike and they were off. It had_ only _taken about _three hours, two skinned shins, and a sore abdomen._

-wr-

"Did you have to punch me in my stomach?" Robbie questioned for the fifth time as he clutched his stomach and moaned pathetically.

They were taking a break from riding the bikes and were now simply pushing them along the highway, which was filled with abandoned cars.

They had discovered the closer they got to leaving LA, the more cars popped up. They had taken time to search the first few cars and had found a lot of half drunken bottles of water and old dash board candies.

"You shouldn't have laughed at me." Jade told him simply looking towards the quickly darkening sky.

"I told you I was sorry!" He yelled loudly for no reason. "I just thought a seventeen year old girl would have ridden a bike before." He laughed nervously when she glared at him and spit her peppermint at him.

"We'll you taught me, congratulations Shapiro." He wondered why she was so bitter. "We need to find a pla-"

"Too sleep, yeah." Robbie agreed interrupting her. He looked around missing her glare. "I was thinking we could use one of the cars. One of us can get the back seat and one of us can get the front."

"Fine, but I get back seat."

They settled in a mid-sized abandoned dark blue car with a dent in its hood. They picked a car with cloth seating for obvious reasons, Jade in the back, while Robbie had to scrunch up in the front. They shared a jar of apple banana sauce and sipped at their precious water.

Night fell and so did the temperature; they each had a blanket from Robbie's house. They waited for nightfall neither of them really getting any sleep.

When the moon was high in black horizon a howl broke through the quiet night. Robbie would have been more frightened if they weren't in a car.

"I think it's a coyote." Robbie explained as if Jade had asked. "I bet the lack of people really brings them out."

"Thank you my dear teacher Shapiro." Sarcasm sort of hurt him.

Jade moved around in the backseat making the car move a little as she got from her lying position. He glanced at her as she oddly pressed her face to the back window and began banging on it open handed.

"Wh-"

He was interrupted by a growl and a second later a furry head appeared. The coyote's sharp teeth glinted in the limited light and its eyes glowed. It growled ferociously and shoved its muzzle into the window and snapped.

Jade growls back…

Robbie watches in pure amazement for a while, his hand still over his now calm heart. "You've lost it." He quietly said and was ignored. The animal goes crazy as Jade antagonizes it further and another jumps on the hood of the car and growls and claws at the windshield. "Can you stop antagonizing the animals?" Robbie asked under his breath.

Jade growls and slaps her hand on the window for another thirty minutes. He isn't really sure who gets bored first. An hour after things have gone quiet again thunder booms and they get a frightening display of lightning. A moment later a heavy down pour begins accompanied by hail that actually cracks the windshield.

It's a little unnerving at first, but it finally lulls both of them to sleep.

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	6. Food

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The road is flooded a little in the morning and too slippery to ride their bikes. There is less clouds and the blazing sun actually peeks through.

They see their first body only a mile away from the car they spent the night. It's getting picked at by half a dozen vultures – it looks like it was a man.

They stare blankly at it for almost five minutes. When one of the big foreboding birds removes an eye ball, Robbie loses his breakfast of apple banana sauce while his female companion dry heaves and spits. Their T-shirt masks officially ruined they use medical masks they had found in one of the cars.

They move on. The further they go the more birds they see. The more birds they see the more bodies they see. Robbie counts fifty in his head, though it could be more hidden inside cars he really doesn't look.

Another spilt in the earth appears. This time right across the highway and they quickly understand why there was so many cars lining the long stretch of road and the bodies. Though they couldn't understand why they hadn't returned to the city.

"What are we going to do now?" Jade asked Robbie to his surprise.

He couldn't understand why she asked him, he had been following her. He thought he was anyway…

"I guess heading back to the city would be a bad idea?"

She gives him a look before glancing back towards the wide hole and readjusting her book bag. "Yeah, why did I even ask you?" She whispers under her breath and he hears.

"Maybe we can walk around?" He lightly ponders turning to look off road. "It can't go on for too long, right?" The long spilt looked like it went on for miles.

"Alright genius, what if we can't make it to shelter by nightfall?"

It's a rhetorical question but he answers anyway. "Those coyotes you taunted come back for revenge."

She actually looks like being in his presence hurts her. "Ugh…"

Robbie takes a step off the road expecting Jade to follow. She angrily stomps behind him.

"…snakes, scorpions, spiders, we could pass out from too much heat exposure…" Robbie takes a pause from explaining all the things that could kill them as they walk down the barren landscape. The highway is far behind them. Robbie's sweating through his torn T-shirt and Jade had actually torn her sleeves off her shirt.

Jade trails behind Robbie her eyes half-way closed and her hands over her ears. When she almost falls over a few rocks she yells angrily and loudly.

"Shut up!" Her voice echoes.

Robbie glances back at her and frowns. "But you asked…"

"Why don't you understand the concept of sarcasm?" She quickly storms by him like a hurricane, hitting him dangerously close to the hole in the earth. He immediately decides to walk further away from the 'crack'.

This hole was much longer the last one and it was getting dark. "I think this was a bad idea." He comments. She huffs in response.

Finally the earths spilt becomes smaller until it's truly just a crack in the ground, they both step over it. It's getting dark and they're in the middle of nothing – no places to hide. It had taken hours to get out this far and they both were aware of how impossible it was to make it back before nightfall.

-wr-

Fortunately they make it back to the highway without any incident and find a car to camp in.

They're tired and they don't talk as they have a dinner of peppermint and to warm water, and they settle in their respective areas of the little white car they found.

A lot of thinking happens that night and they both shed a few tears.

-wr-

A week and a half of constant traveling goes by. It's hot when its daylight and horrible frightening storms rage when it's night. Not many things changes in the ways of landscape, there are fewer cars on the road – only a few broken down ones remain, and everything is still desolate.

They think they leave California behind a day, maybe two ago. They still haven't found another _living_ soul. They only talk about which ways to go and how long to boil the water they collect when it rains. Not much else to talk about, not anything they wanna talk about anyway.

They're famished and they look it.

Robbie gulps down a swallow of chemically tasting water as he lounges on the hood of a dusty red mustang, he ignores the heat that emits from the car and burns his skin. It makes him forget how much his stomach pains for food. Starving is an awful feeling.

He caps his bottle and returns his mask to his face. The air is a lot cleaner away from the city but he thinks his lungs are forever damaged and breathing regular air hurts. He closes his eyes tightly feeling the tale-tell signs of tears working behind his eyes.

_Time to stop crying and man up, Robbie._

"Robbie!"

He hears the yell and is up in minutes, sliding off the car and grabbing his bag he meets Jade half-way. She had left to take care of business.

"What? Is it another snake?" He yells clumsily fumbles with the blade he had found a week ago.

Jade rolls her eyes. "No…" She glances behind her she looks oddly excited and a little worried. "It's a dog and it isn't that big, but I think there would be enough."

"Wait…" Robbie frowned at her his mind clicking everything into place. "Are you saying we like, uh… eat the… uh, dog?"

She gave him a look like he was stupid. "No, I've always wanted a pet. Yes, we're going to eat it."

Robbie made a face of disgust but his stomach rumbled rebelliously at the thought of food. "Isn't that a little inhumane?"

"Would you rather starve?" She frowned at him. "Listen to your stomach, Shapiro."

He listened to his stomach and they began haunting a dog, for dinner.

They actually got the animal cornered after chasing it for fifteen minutes and more bumps and bruises.

"Come here little guy, we aren't going to hurt you." Jade cooed. Robbie thought it was oddly creepy but made a decision to keep his thoughts to himself.

The little furry brown dog let out a growl that was more cute then threatening. It also bounced around and rubbed its belly on the ground. Robbie was having second thoughts. He glanced towards Jade who was making a face; maybe, he hoped she was having second thoughts too.

A gun shot ranging out had them both jump and twist around. The little animal darted between their legs and run over to the gun bearer.

"You heathens were trying to eat my dog."

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